Dan Lanning got Curt Cignetti to break.

It came toward the end of Saturday’s Peach Bowl introductory coaches’ press conference, when the Oregon coach fielded a question about the depth of his secondary following a series of transfer portal departures at the position.

“I’m probably going to play it,” Lanning said. “But if I’m not able to go, we’ll put one of the other coaches in.”

Zooming in from his office in Bloomington, Cignetti chuckled.

Lanning got another laugh out of his counterpart when the Indiana coach talked about the challenge of hosting 13 transfer portal recruits this week while trying to game plan for Friday’s Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

“First, I’d like to tell you, coach Cignetti, keep focusing on those portal guys,” Lanning chided.

Cignetti got Lanning on a few, too. After all, these coaches know each other well. Not only did they already play earlier this season at Autzen Stadium, but a big storyline this week is the familiarity among the coaches in the final four.

All of them — Lanning, Cignetti, Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Ole Miss’ Pete Golding — worked for Nick Saban at Alabama at one point in their careers.

“Four for four, I think everybody learned a lot from Nick,” Cignetti said.

“Things I thought I knew — I realized I didn’t know anything,” Lanning added.

What Lanning and the Ducks didn’t know two months ago was how to stop Indiana’s defensive front in a 30-20 defeat.

In Oregon’s lone loss of the season, the Hoosiers brought down quarterback Dante Moore six times and tallied eight tackles for a loss.

“In a lot of ways you’d call it an illusion defense,” Lanning said. “They show you one thing and they take something else away. They’re really good at post-snap movement, which makes it difficult for the quarterback. Their defensive line plays with relentless effort.”

The Indiana game was really the lone blemish for an Oregon group that still finished as a Joe Moore Award finalist for the nation’s best offensive line during the regular season. Granted, the line play looked shaky again against Texas Tech. Moore went down twice, the Red Raiders piled up 10 tackles for loss and Oregon finished with a season-low 3.8 yards per play.

“(Texas Tech’s) rush was able to take advantage of us at times,” Lanning said. “So I think there will be a little bit of a chip on our guys’ shoulders. There are some opportunities for us to be better there — how we hold the pocket and how we take care of the football.”

Teitum’s getting his flowers

I’ve been thinking about a question I asked Teitum Tuioti before the season started.

In his first two seasons with the Ducks, Tuioti compiled 11.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks. He’s been on an upward trajectory from the moment he stepped on campus, yet his name has often lived on the inside pages.

Did he care about not being in the spotlight? 

“Obviously I want to be successful in my own ways,” he said in August. “But at the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about the team. It’s about helping these younger cats out — the guys I know are going to make plays in Autzen.”

Here in 2025, the Ducks still have bigger names on defense. But I’d argue none have been more important than Tuioti.

His two sacks in the Orange Bowl pushed his team lead to 9.5 on the season. He’s also posted career highs in tackles (66), tackles for loss (16), passes defended (5) and forced fumbles (2).

One of my favorite moments from the past week came during media day watching Oregon defensive line coach Tony Tuioti record video of his son Teitum and teammate Matayo Uiagalelei speaking at neighboring podiums.

“That’s my brother,” Tuioti said of Uiagalelei. “We got a relationship. Our defense really has a great relationship. And at the end of the day, it’s really about the power of the unit. Our connection is what separates us on defense.”

‘He’s got the guts’

Tuioti also caught an 11-yard pass — not from Dante Moore, but from punter James Ferguson-Reynolds.

The Australian rolled out to his right on a fourth down in the second quarter and found the Oregon linebacker to move the chains.

It was a special moment for Ferguson-Reynolds. After a fake-punt touchdown pass earlier this season was wiped out by a penalty, seeing this one succeed felt like the right payoff. 

“We’ve been working on that one for at least two months, keeping it in the bank — so I was excited to go run it,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “I love being under Dan Lanning. He’s got the guts to call those plays in such crucial moments.”

The Ducks were aggressive against the Red Raiders. Including the fake punt, Oregon converted 4 of 8 fourth-down attempts on Thursday.

“I assume all the times it didn’t work I’m stupid and all the times it worked I’m smart,” Lanning said. “It felt like if you limited their offense’s opportunities, you increased our chances to go score — and that showed up today.”

Billboard madness

The day after Oregon’s Orange Bowl win, freeways between Fort Lauderdale and Miami were lined with Oregon faces.

“B1G Congrats,” read one digital billboard. “Good luck in Atlanta!”

I posted a photo to social media and one follower responded: “That’s a way to inspire the Hurricanes seeing this in their city after they won.”

Which, sure.

But the Hurricanes seem to be doing just fine with their representation in Oregon — as seen Sunday in North Portland, driving past the Adidas campus.

Goodbye, Miami — for now

A few photos from the camera roll from our days in Miami. Photographer Isaac Wasserman and I will be flying back out to Atlanta on Thursday. Thanks for following along with our coverage. 

Also: I enjoyed Bill Oram’s postgame column over at The Oregonian and the anecdote about Dan Lanning leaning into the “leave a bag here” mantra when talking about the potential of a return trip to Miami for the title game. 

I subliminally did the same thing: I definitely left my computer charger at the Airbnb.